A Cold Winter...

You know what was nice? About two weeks ago when it was 65 degrees and I was complaining about global warming. You know what is not nice? Today, rolling through the drive-thru at Burger Kind and my windows not going down because they were frozen shut. Opening my door to order fast food is all kinds of sad. Luckily after hitting it a few times, it finally went down (that's what she said).

I've spent most of my life preaching about seasons and how much I love them all, even winter. Well my friends, I'm going to say something that I never thought I'd say: I wouldn't mind moving somewhere warmer. I don't need SoCal or even NorCal, but maybe something a little more moderate in the winter. Maybe North Carolina or just anywhere below 40 degrees latitude. The older I get the worse it is. My knees hurt and my body stiffens and I'm only 28 which leads me to wonder why my parents don't spend winters in India. I suppose they would have to retire to do that, but when I'm their age, you can find me on a beach in Mexico.

Give me two weeks of snow over Christmas and then head back to wherever it is I docked my boat (apparently in the future I'm rich). Anyway, just something to think about as you wrap yourselves up to brave the winter.

As always, go big. I'm out.

-M, p, z & shredder

27 No More...

As I sit here, 1 hour away from being 28, I can't help but think how much has changed in this last year if my life. I started the year living in Manhattan, moved to Chicago, decided to go back to school, started school and as of this Thursday will be halfway done with school. In the middle of all that, I made new friends, Tiger Woods slept with some ugly chicks, multiple friends got married and all the while I kept getting better looking.

I realized two things in the last couple of days. The first I learned last night while waiting in line at Game Stop at midnight for the release of Halo: Reach - no matter how nerdy I am in how I live my life, I do not belong at a Game Stop at midnight. Those people were insane. White guys with dreads, fat kids who don't user deodorant, kids who still dress all in black and then about 45 people deep in the line was me, clad in sweatpants and a t-shirt, just waiting to pick up the game and get out. I might be a nerd, but I'm a also pretty awesome and I'm glad I'm not like them.

The second is that no matter how much I hate getting older, I really don't feel any older. I suppose this goes along with the old adage that you're only as old as you feel and in my case, that's right around 21. Granted my knees and my back keep me from believing it, but I firmly agree with the sentiment. I would surmise that it has something to do with the fact that I'm not any more accomplished at 28 than at 21, at least financially and in fact was making more money then than I am currently. But I also think that maturity isn't something you attain, but rather something that evolves around you. I'm always going to laugh at farts and think hitting things out of people's hands is funny, but I also don't act like I'm 12. I still watch cartoons and still play video games, but I'm capable of being fastidious and paying bills.

The moral of today's rant is this, and this goes to my contemporaries and those readers who have recently delved into the realm of being a 'Thirty-Something': it's okay to grow up, but never grow old.

I'm out. As always, go big. Keep your feet on the ground but keep reaching for the stars. Life's short, live large. Pain heals, chicks dig scars and glory last forever. Your heart is free, have the courage to follow it.

I'll catch you all on the flip side.

-M, p, z & shredder

Slowing Down...

So further evidence that I'm getting older is the fact that everything is just that much harder on my body. About a month ago or so I noticed I was starting to pack on the pounds and while I wasn't close to hitting my fat peak when I was 182 lbs, I was at a slightly unsettling 174. I decided I needed to lose some weight immediately and figured 10 pounds this month would be enough. When I was at 182 I was 22 years old and it took me 3 weeks of running a mile every other day to lose 15 lbs. This was only about 3 years ago so I thought it should take about as long to lose 10 lbs. It hasn't. I've only lost 8 lbs and to do that I've not only been running more than a mile just about everyday, but also I changed my diet. I have 2 days left before I leave for DC for new years and hopefully I can lose those pounds.

It's strange to start thinking about my health when it seems like just yesterday when I was in high school eating 3 bags of chips, cookies and a coke for lunch. But I'm getting older and if I don't start doing it now it will only get harder the older I get. Now I have to cut back on carbs, I try and not put salt into anything I cook, I have only been drunk once in the last 2 months and I cut out fast food which turned out to be the hardest thing. I have never really been one to eat a lot of fast food, it's not that great and it extremely bad for you. But as I had pretty much been living in my car and on the road and city to city from August to November I had grown accustomed to getting a regular fix of chicken nuggets and spicy chicken sandwiches. It's been a while since I've had any fast food and while I feel great I find myself craving the aforementioned golden nuggets of pure deliciousness more often that not.













Also as a reminder of my age, I was knocked over playing basketball 2 days ago and my back and ass were sore the entire day yesterday. I had to take 2 Tylenol to not wince every time I moved. It was ridiculous. I have never been so sore from one seemingly innocuous fall. I remember recently feeling the same after a trip to Florida when I got pounded by some waves and I vowed to regain my body of my youth by falling a lot and building up tolerance for it but that's a pretty lame idea. Falling sucks and I don't really want to do it anymore.

Anyways, I'm going to try and get out the few blogs I have been to lazy to write before I take off to DC on Sunday so look for many blogs over the next few days. Go big and stuff..

-M, p, z & shredder

oh ps - Last year one of my 'resolutions' was to cut out all meat but chicken and seafood. I have done that pretty well. I had a few slip ups when I ate things that I was unaware that had pork in them and also amended the resolution for include turkey. But other than maybe 5 meals I stuck to my convictions and it's pretty awesome. Chicken, even though it's the greatest thing on the planet, is also not that great for you. So for this year I plan on slowly phasing it out. Eating more seafood and less chicken. I am going to try and cut back from eating it pretty much 7 days a week (usually twice a day) to no more than 7 meals a week. It sounds like it's still a lot but if you think about it there's 21 meals a week and I'm only having chicken in 33 percent of those meals. Hopefully I will have about 10 that include various types of seafood and turkey and then at least 4 or 5 that are vegetarian.